This morning, the Washington Post has a nice little scoop on how after well over a decade living in town, former Mayor Anthony A. Williams has put money down on a sweet new 2,146-square-foot pad at Jim Abdo’s Landmark Lofts on H Street NE.

And Mayor Bowtie, now ensconced in a cushy corporate job, finally gave an explanation as to the delay in his homeownership:

Williams, 56, now chief executive of a real estate investment fund in Arlington, said he never bought property when he was running the city because of “the political and financial pressures. Politically, it was hard trying to pick an area.” Aides said the mayor realized that whatever neighborhood he chose would become fodder for public debate, to be chewed over and critiqued.

Oh, ferchrissakes. Like his decision not to own a home wasn’t endlessly chewed over and critiqued?

At one point, Williams was said to have been eyeing property in LeDroit Park. LL asks: Who possibly could have had a problem with LeDroit Park? It’s got history. It’s got majority-black demographics. It’s got a pedigree (former Mayor Walter Washington lived there). It’s got beautiful homes. I mean was Shepherd Park really gonna get pissed if you snubbed ’em?

Seriously, Tony, what’s real story?

Via the Washington Post this a.m. comes news that the latest round of property-tax assessments has increased slightly citywide. But the variations from block to block provide the really interesting story.

For instance: Brentwood, for the second straight year, posts big increases in assessments. Guess the garbage isn’t stinking quite as much as in the past.

Another for instance: Assessments in LeDroit Park have gone down just a hair, by 1.7 percent. What’s gone wrong over there? Did someone’s cornice fall off? Or did someone in the tax office decide, Hey, Florida Avenue is still a dump?

And while I’m on a property-tax rant, I pose the following question to our world of D.C.-philes out there. Who in this vast universe actually knows, off the top of your head, which neighborhoods fall into the tax office’s “Old City I” designation and its “Old City II” designation?
Yes, these terms are used to cover all those neighborhoods in the the city’s gentrification plume. Yet no one, I maintain, has any clue where the boundaries lie.

If you’re out there, Mr. or Mrs. “Old City I and Old City II,” catch up with me in the comments section. If you can convince me that you have this nailed, and you don’t work in the tax office, I’ll give you a Washington City Paper T shirt plus a $25 money order, even if the latter has to come out of my own pocket, because I haven’t cleared this one with corporate yet.

And merely Googling the tax office’s definitions isn’t going to get you there. I want a phoner interview with you too.

This sign at Florida Avenue and T Street NW stood under a tarp until Friday, when DDOT director Emeka Moneme and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham unveiled it for a photo op. Nothing new in any of that. But the sign, for some reason, had to be erected twice. “I watched them install the thing once, as I made my coffee, and by the time I got home that night it was gone,” writes Puja Telikicherla, whose house is nearby. “I watched them put it up again, last week.” DDOT spokersperson Erik Linden says he was aware of only one installation.

Lawrence Guyot, longtime civil-rights activist and community organizer, has served as an advisory neighborhood commissioner for 10 years. He’s decided to run again, and as part of his campaign, has distributed a flier asking residents of Shaw and LeDroit Park to “Re-Elect Commissioner Lawrence Guyot” in a large bold font.

Problem is, Guyot can’t be re-elected except in a more liberal sense of the term: He’s not currently on the commission. Guyot was forced to step down in 2004 after Myla Moss challenged him for his seat and won.

Says Moss: “He’s not to be re-elected. He needs to be elected.”

“I’m not claiming to be an incumbent,” Guyot insists, though the next-to-last bullet point in his flier’s background statement reads: “Incumbent member of ANC 1B; Past Chairperson.”

He chalks the faulty flier up to “dated material” and makes no apologies for the error. “I’m [going to] use it anyway,” he says.

Moss says she doesn’t think that Guyot’s campaign pitch was an error. “He just chose to use that verbiage on purpose. It’s no mistake. That’s Mr. Guyot’s form of campaigning.”